Off-Roaders Up in Arms Over Navy Plan to Close Desert at Ocotillo Wells

Juanita Severe made no effort to suppress a guffaw when a visitor to her Ocotillo Wells Market asked about the Navy’s plan to remove from the public domain hundreds of thousands of acres of desert land smack in the middle of one of the favored playgrounds for off-road vehicle riders in Southern California.

“I’ve lived here for 20 years and I’ve seen these scares come and go many times,” she said. “I managed to survive through the gas squeeze, and I just don’t think there’s anything to worry about this time. I appreciate the business from the off-roaders, but they’d still be around, anyway. The Navy isn’t going to put a fence up and it’s a big desert out there.

“People out here are hot and they’re ready for a shotgun revolution. But I tell ‘em, ‘Don’t pack yet, we’re not going anyplace.’ ”

Indeed, people out here are as hot as the July desert sun about what they call the Navy’s land grab, even though the approximately 300,000 acres in question lie just across the Imperial County line, adjacent to the Navy’s flight paths and bombing ranges. The Navy wants control of the land (it already owns more than 600,000 acres in the desert) to ensure that future development will not pose a safety hazard that would impede its military exercises.

Off-roaders see the Navy’s move as just another in a long line of government-ordered closures of lands where their sport, which has evolved into a family weekend getaway activity, can be practiced.

The handful of Ocotillo Wells business owners, whose fortunes depend on the dollars spent by the off-roaders, naturally fear for the future of the sport that supports them. But they carry the scenario a step farther and talk openly about the possibility that this first takeover by the Navy will lead to additional actions, including eventual government condemnation of their property.

The Navy has been attempting to dispel such rumors. In an official policy statement, Capt. Emil G. Brown, commanding officer of the El Centro Naval Air Facility, said, “The Navy’s plans will not conflict with most of the recreational activities in the desert.”

But tensions and fears have been heightened by a shroud of secrecy surroundeding negotiations between the Navy and the federal Bureau of Land Management, which will rule on the Navy’s proposal.

Adding to the mistrust of the government expressed by desert visitors and residents is the fact that the critical decisions are being made hundreds of miles away, in Northern California and San Bernardino County.

A tentative agreement on which lands should be closed is expected to be announced after a closed-door meeting between BLM and Navy officials Tuesday in the San Francisco suburb of San Bruno.

That agreement will be the subject of a BLM hearing Feb. 15 in San Bernardino to receive public comment on the land closure before its final approval. Many of the 100 or so permanent residents of Ocotillo Wells will be there to testify, as will hordes of the off-road enthusiasts who swell the population of this town to upwards of 10,000 on busy weekends.

“There are millions of dollars worth of business from people who come in here on the weekends,” said Al Williams, owner for 12 years of the Burro Bend restaurant just across California 78 from the state off-road vehicle park in Ocotillo Wells and a leader in the movement to block the Navy’s land closure.

For Williams, business is strictly feast or famine. Hours can pass on a weekday before his wife, Bert, gets an order to grill a burger, but customers camped in the park line up three-deep at the counter for Sunday breakfast before heading to the off-road trails.

“There’s nothing going on out here on weekdays or in the summer, so we have to make our living from the off-roaders,” he said. “This has become one of the No. 1 recreation areas in all of Southern California. At night, you look out across that desert and you see nothing but lights from the off-roaders at their campsites.

“It’s a shame that the Navy wants to take all of this land. And, there’s no reason for it. We’d back the Navy 100% if they needed the land because of some kind of national emergency.”

Williams has organized letter-writing campaigns to area legislators and is confident that a show of strength at the San Bernardino meeting will convince the Navy to reconsider.

“If enough people show up and complain, the Navy will back up.”

Leonard Hoyt, who retired five years ago to Ocotillo Wells after a 30-year career in the Navy and bought the Desert Ironwoods Motel, said, “I can’t believe the thousands of off-roaders are going to let the Navy get away with this. And the Navy might be surprised to find it’s not just a bunch of guys on bikes who do the off-roading, but families. That’s the big change in the last couple of years. Now, 95% of our business comes from families who come out for off-roading.”

Hoping to capitalize on the off-road craze, Hoyt recently received approval from the county for construction of a recreational vehicle campground adjacent to the hotel. “We turn hundreds of people away on the weekends,” he said. “Doesn’t the Navy realize how important this recreation area is to all of these families?”

Like Williams, Hoyt depends on the off-road trade. “We’d lose our shirts, that’s all there is to it, if the off-roaders were not able to come here,” he said.

Hoyt and Williams are angered by the Navy’s failure to consult local business owners before making the decision to take over the land. “The Navy has not approached anyone out here to talk about the plans, and that makes you suspicious,” Hoyt said.

“When they act in secret, you wonder what they’re up to,” Williams said. “If this goes through, who knows what will be next? They could come out and take our land away from us.”

Camped on the desert floor in the Ocotillo Wells State Vehicular Recreation Area, Ron Stephenson, a Vista resident who has been off-roading for 15 years here, said bitterly that he “would just stop paying the state my damn $35 if they keep taking the land away. What am I paying that money for, anyway?”

Stephenson referred to the annual “green sticker” state registration fee required on each off-road vehicle. Revenue from the fees is earmarked for development of off-road vehicle parks like the state-run area in Ocotillo Wells, but riders believe they are not receiving a good return on that investment. Ocotillo Wells is the only officially designated off-road area in San Diego County.

The Board of Supervisors last year rejected a proposal for an off-road park in Sycamore Canyon, a wide swath of open space separating Poway from Santee, after receiving complaints from residents of the two cities fearing massive traffic jams and noise pollution.

A county task force is considering alternative sites, with the Otay Mesa area leading the list of candidates, and the supervisors are on record as supporting development of a park closer to the population centers of San Diego. But the lengthy environmental review process necessary for development of a park dictates that it will be at least five years before a park can open in the county.

Similar constraints frustrate off-road aficionados in Orange County, where Saddleback Park, an off-road park, recently was closed. The Irvine Company, owner of the park, plans to develop the land.

“We’re shut out at home now,” said Joe Catron, a Dana Point resident, as he waited for his breakfast order at the Burro Bend. “It’s crazy--just when the sport becomes safe and popular for families, there’s no place left to ride. More and more bikes are being sold, but there’s less and less land where you can ride them.”

“This is the only place left to go, and the Navy deal would tighten up the land out here just when more and more riders are getting into off-roading,” said Stephenson, who had arrived in the desert Thursday night to avoid the weekend crowds.

“It used to be you could go off-roading near where you lived --we used to use the hills around Palomar Airport Road, but they keep pushing us farther and farther away. It’s already so packed that you have accidents and everything else on the weekends. And if this goes through, Ocotillo Wells will be even worse. I’ll have to look for somewhere else to go.”